Lando Norris has said he is unsure of the pace McLaren will have at the Monaco Grand Prix as the team look to bounce back from a disappointing result last time out at the Miami GP.
The driver did, however, note that the McLaren cars have surprised the team around Monte Carlo in recent years.
McLaren’s Baku upgrade did not help the team in Miami as the team endured a hard weekend.
The team experienced a difficult race at the Miami International Autodrome, as both cars qualified 16th and 19th and went on to finish 17th and 19th.
It appeared that the tenth and a half pace upgrade the team introduced had vanished in the USA.
“Nothing really changed from Baku to Miami.” Norris said to media. “We went from looking like, “Oh McLaren are like this”, and then we went to Miami and it looked shocking.”
“So just a little bit more up and down and this circuit might be a little more in line with where we were in Baku.”
‘Perform better here’
Miami‘s long straights exploited the high drag of the MCL60, as the car bled pace around the lap.
But this will not be the case at Monaco, where the corners just come thick and fast at the drivers.
Although pessimistic about McLaren’s chances, Norris has noted that the cars do tend to surprise the team around Monte Carlo.
“Well, we’ll see. It’s been a track we’ve actually done well at in the past.” Norris said to the media. “Even at times where we didn’t expect. P5 last year, P3 the year before.
“So, we probably do perform better here than maybe some other places.”
McLaren started the season slowly, having been behind where they hoped to be in the development cycle and having lost ground to the other teams.
But the team managed to score points in Australia and Azerbaijan so perhaps the tide is starting to turn for the Woking team.
